Moving On
by Meme3264
Summary: After something traumatic happens to Sarah, how will she and the Braverman's deal with this turn of events. Takes place after Season 4 and includes what info I've been able to find about Season 5. Please review! (And I apologize for the title.)
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE:

Jogging down the streets at 10pm, Sarah joyfully absorbed the lights, cool air and peaceful atmosphere of empty streets of Berkeley. Her life, at the moment, was finally going her way. She'd finally moved out of her parent's guest house and into a new apartment. While it wasn't anything to write home about, it was her own space free of the constant presence and observation of her parents and it kept her busy enough organizing, maintaining and liaising with the tenants that she didn't have a lot of time to dwell on any negative thoughts. She'd found a job that she was good at; something that could really inspire her and help her realize her potential. For a while, she'd thought it would be play-writing, and while her play was still in production, she'd needed something creative that she could earn a living from. And photography had been the answer.

Since working with Hank, she'd learned an incredible amount about the business and had discovered her very own voice, style and passion for the art. Her name had been passed around quite a lot and her career as a photographer was taking off, nevertheless, she tried not to focus on the fact that her clients were pets. She hoped to transition into human subjects soon, and had already done a few portraits, but the majority of her income came from pet portraits.

While her career had started to take off, her personal life left something to be desired. Since Hank had moved to Minnesota and she'd broken up with Mark, Sarah hadn't really found anyone she considered worth dating. Carl, the new tenant in her apartment building had been a breath of fresh air at first, and while he was charming and fun to be around, his increasing attentions had begun to grate on her nerves.

Lastly, her thoughts turned to the topic she had been trying to avoid thinking about; her children. While they were both doing exceptionally well career or academically wise, their personal lives also left something to be desired. Amber and Ryan had been engaged for ten days before Ryan had been recalled to duty and sent back to Afghanistan. They hadn't really had time to celebrate their engagement, so they'd vowed to celebrate it properly when he returned home. He had returned last week and Amber was ecstatic. Drew had been doing well at Berkeley, his grades were fantastic and he seemed to be really enjoying his classes, but unfortunately, he'd been stuck with a horrible roommate who partied all night, slept around and generally made his life awful. With all this drama, she desperately missed her kids; especially Drew who she hadn't seen in almost a month.

As Sarah turned around the corner into dark alley a few streets down from her building, she was so caught up in her thoughts that she failed to notice the distinct rustle of someone following her, quickly succeeded by fast approaching footsteps. All at once, someone had slammed her into the wall of the alley, her phone and keys stabbed her legs from within her pockets and a hand was roughly and tightly placed over her mouth.

Thinking quickly, she attempted to bite the hand muzzling her, but was unable to do anything more than nibble the palm of her attacker's hand. As she felt the other hand of her attacker make its way into her pants, she struggled, screamed and twisted frantically trying to release herself or gain enough leverage to incapacitate her attacker.

"Stop or I'll kill you!" her attacked whispered harshly in her ear after a particularly violent kick to the shins. She felt the cool blade of a knife at her neck and faintly registered the trickle of blood from the cut it made as she slowly stopped struggling.

As she felt her attacker push into her and her mind leave; her last thought was 'I should have been more careful'.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE:

Vaguely, she registered the sound of traffic but it seemed to be coming from a great distance. As she listened longer, she became more aware of her surroundings. She was still in the alley, her shoes beside her crumpled form, her clothing wrapped around her ankles. As she moved to dress herself, she felt her body aching in protest. Everything hurt, especially her breasts and between her legs. Pulling her pants up, she wasn't surprised to notice the blood smears on her inner thigh or the blood still oozing from the cut to her neck.

Dressed now, Sarah picked up her belongings and walked the next 5 blocks to the hospital cautiously; frightened and in pain. Upon entering the emergency room, she informed the triage nurse of her situation and was immediately taken into a quiet exam room and left to wait for another nurse to administer the rape kit.

After what seemed like an eternity, the same nurse who had escorted her to the room as well as an older nurse entered the room with a tray filled with boxes, swaps, tubes, instruments and a camera. Sarah glanced from the tray to the nurses faces and back again before she leaned back in the exam chair. Placing her feet in the stirrups and feeling the various instruments and swaps between her legs, Sarah swore that this experience was just as humiliating as the rape itself. As the nurses finished their examination, the room was silent for a moment before there was a knock on the door.

The younger nurse answered the door, while the elder helped Sarah lift her legs down and put on the replacement sweatsuit as she bagged Sarah's clothing.

"The police are here," the younger nurse informed Sarah and the older nurse. The older nurse beckoned the police inside and while Sarah glanced warily from the male detective to the female detective, she silently left the room.

What felt like hours later, the police were finally done interviewing her. As they dropped her off outside her apartment building, they promised to phone her as soon as any news of her attacker came in. Sarah entered the building and quickly made her way down to the basement apartment she occupied, looked around the area warily. Now that her sense of security had been ripped from her, she suddenly felt afraid of the openness, lack of security features and separation from the main complex. Locking the door behind her, and jamming a chair beneath the door knob, Sarah locked every conceivable opening before proceeding to the bathroom and entering the shower fully clothed.

As she felt the water drops pelt her through the sweat suit, the enormity of what she had just been through struck her for the first time. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mingling with the shower water, and her legs lost their strength and she collapsed on the tile floor, curling herself into a ball as the water continued to pour down on her.

The sudden ringing of her phone startled her, her eyes shot open, and she recognised the ringtone of her son. Letting the phone ring out, she wasn't up to taking a call right now, she played the voice mail back.

"Mom, it's Drew. We're all waiting for you! Hurry up! We're celebrating Amber's engagement, remember?"

Sarah closed her eyes, before opening them rapidly once again as the thought hit her. She couldn't tell anyone what happened; Amber was engaged, Drew & Haddie were studying hard at University, Kristina was running for Mayor, Adam was enjoying his wife being cancer free and was busy with the studio, Jasmine and Crosby were busy with their new baby, Joel, Julia, Sydney and Victor were finally enjoying being a family and her parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary soon. She couldn't burden anyone with her problems; it wouldn't be right to take away the happiness they all felt at the moment. No, Sarah decided, she would deal with this on her own. She wouldn't become a burden to her family.

If anyone noticed that Sarah was quiet and withdrawn during the celebration, no one said anything. She made her way around the room speaking very briefly to everyone before moving to a secluded area of the house, away from the chatter, music and laughter. It was more than she could deal with right now. She was careful to mingle every 15 minutes or so to perpetuate the illusion she was celebrating. She knew it wasn't right; this should be one of the happiest days in her life, but all she could think about was what happened earlier. She hoped that as soon as this day was over, it would be easier to maintain the illusion that nothing was wrong.

Since moving out of her parents guest house, starting her own photography business and working as the super in her building, she'd had less time to spend with her family and while she had missed the contact, at the moment she was inordinately grateful for the busy schedule as it gave her a built-in excuse to avoid her family until she could convincingly pretend that nothing was wrong. Feeling obligated to re-enter the party, she was immediately accosted by Kristina.

"Sarah, hey," Kristina started. She grabbed her arm and before Sarah could hide it, Kristina caught her brief flinch. She gave Sarah a strange look, but let it go as she released her arm and lead the way back to the secluded and quiet section of the house Sarah had just been in, "I've been looking for you".

As they reached the relative peacefulness of the house, Kristina turned back to Sarah and deciding to ignore Sarah's uncharacteristic flinch, said "You know I'm running for Mayor, right?" Sarah nodded, "Well, I need a new slew of photographs to promote my image and I thought you might be able to help me out. I'd pay you, of course," she added hastily, seeing Sarah's brief flash of hesitation.

Sarah bobbed her head thoughtfully; if she accepted the job she'd be acting normally and while it was some interaction, it could be fairly limited to photography and the campaign.

"Of course," Sarah answered, "When would you like these photos? Any particular style you're after?"

"Just general portraits, maybe some in natural situations, you know?"

Sarah nodded, it would require a bit more time, energy and conversation but it was clear that the majority of personal information exchanges could be avoided.

"When do you want these shots?"

"I was thinking Monday, if that's okay?" In two days, Sarah thought in a flash of panic, "I know it's soon, but I'd like to get it done as quickly as possible."

"O...Okay," Sarah said uncertainly, two days didn't give her a lot of time to come to grips with what had happened and put on a convincing facade, but on the other hand, it would help take her mind of what had happened and it was an awesome opportunity for her career she found these factors to be more significant.

"Great!" Kristina said with a wide smile, "Ten thirty at the studio?"

"See you then," Sarah said, plastering a fake smile across her features. As Kristina turned to walk away, Sarah called out gently, "Hey, thanks for this," She said, a soft look on her features and a genuine smile, "Thanks for giving me a chance."

"Anytime."

With that they parted ways, Kristina back to the party and Sarah further into the quiet part of the house. Soon the dancing would start and she'd be expected to participate, in order to avoid red flags, so she needed the precious few minutes she had to erect a plausible excuse for her lack of involvement. She knew that any excuse she gave would need to be able to be corroborated but all she could think of was her tenants noisy music, which played most nights and often interrupted her sleep.

Since their music had become almost a staple over the past couple of months, late at night and the early hours of the morning were the times where she got the majority of her developing and photographic editing done. It was peaceful, quiet and dark and this combination helped her creativity flow and produced some amazing results. Now, however, she feared that she might find the factors that had once made this time of night so appealing, frightening. Nevertheless, she resolved, she'd find her way - she always did.


End file.
